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List of references to Gatchaman in popular culture
As a popular anime both in Japan and the US, there have been several references to Gatchaman in popular culture Anime and Manga Brave Police J-Decker In the 22nd episode, the Brave Police burst on the scene of an illegal fighting ring dressed in the capes and helmets of the Ninja Team and the criminal pilot of the centaur mecha was wearing a luchador mask that had a modifed version of the Gatchaman bird logo on it. Nurse Witch Komugi In the second episode of the OVA series "The Red Specter", Komugi uses her magic to cosplay as the Ninja Team and summons The G-Mechas and the God Phoenix. What follows is a parody of the show and ends with them colliding with Koyori (who was cosplaying as Tekkaman) and a Yatterman-style explosion with the skull shaped mushroom cloud. The OVA was done by Tatsunoko, the company who created Gatchaman. Gold Lightan Ken, Jun, and Dr. Nambu's designs are snuck into a brief crowd scene in Episode 29, as spectators at a beauty contest. Ken and Nambu can be more clearly seen in the back row, while Jun is somewhat cut off. The Gatchaman II/Fighter designs are the ones used for the characters. This anime was also created by Tatsunoko, explaining the injoke. Outbreak Company In Episode 10, Minori chants "~Gatcha, Gatcha, Gatcha, Gatcha, Gatcha~" while driving her car. This reference is an inside joke to the fact that Maaya Uchida, who voices Minori in the series, is also is the seiyuu for Hajime Ichinose in Gatchaman Crowds Yatterman (2008) This remake of the Yatterman series features cameos of the actual characters in various episodes. Episode 3, which took place in Hollywood, featured a scene where Ken is in the background of a movie studio lot. Episode 18 features the Science Ninja Team, Katse, and X as special playing cards in a still shot as the narrator explains types of card games played by Japanese children in the 1950s. (As the Yattterman had traveled back in time to the '50s to stop the Doronbo Gang's latest scheme.) Episode 22 also features a Gatchaman and a Sun Vulcan-style Super Sentai parody titled "Ikemen Ninjas". Three men who look similar to Ken, Joe, and Ryu must battle against a Katse-esque villain. After the villain displays the power to grow in size, the three men fuse into a flaming Phoenix to defeat him. Live action television Super Sentai Elements of the Gatchaman series such as wrist changers, a 5 man team and vehicle mechas would later become elements of the Super Sentai series. The 15th season of the Super Sentai franchise, Chojin Sentai Jetman, paid tribute to the show that created some of its aspects with a bird themed team and characters that have personality traits based off of their Gatchaman counterparts. Western Animation Megas XLR A group of heroes called the S-Force made an appearance in "Bad Guy" and "S-Force S.O.S." They are a parody of not only Gatchaman, but also Super Sentai/Power Rangers and Voltron. Two members, Jax and Sloan, are voiced by Alan Young and Ronnie Schell, in a shout-out to their "Battle of the Planets" dub roles of Keyop and Jason. Jax even has a speech impediment similar to Keyop's. The largest guy of the team, Mac, also has a "Space Burger" obsession much like Tiny, and the leader Argo and the only girl Duchess further parody Mark and Princess. The other three members were not voiced by actors from that dub (Alan Dinehart having long passed away), although the actors that had voiced them attempted impressions of the other G-Force members' voices; Argo was voiced by Scott Innes (in an impression of Casey Kasem), Duchess by Jennifer Hale (after Janet Waldo), and Mac by Frank Welker (after Alan Dinehart). Teen Titans "Episode 257-494" features a parody of "Battle of the Planets" titled "Clash of the Planets", down to the logo being similar. A killer robot named "7-Gorn-7" also appears, spoofing the Sandy Frank Entertainment creation of 7-Zark-7. The same episode has Beast Boy mention a show called "Danger Team Five", and the character shown resembles Joe. There is also an appearance of a bearded fanboy who wears a pink dress and superhero costume that parodies Jun/Princess' Bird Style. This fanboy reappears in the episode "For Real", as one of the bloggers that Control Freak chats with about the Titans. Robin is also at times shown wearing a feathered-end cape like the Science Ninja Team when he rides his motorcycle, along with a helmet with a beak-like visor. A character resembling Ken in his Bird Style is also shown on a magazine cover in the movie "Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo". The Simpsons The couch gag of the Christmas episode "'Tis the Fifteenth Season" featured the couch on a sidewalk in Tokyo and the Simpsons family appear as popular Japanese characters. Homer was Ultraman, Marge was Jun the Swan, Maggie was Pikachu, Lisa was Sailor Moon and Bart was Astro Boy. Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends In the episode "Along Came Spidey", the origin of Spider-Man features a brief shot of spectators in a crowd at a wrestling match between Spider-Man and Crusher Hogan. One man in the crowd wears a white sweater with the Gatchaman logo on it, while another man appears to be Joe Asakura, but with his "2" shirt depicted in Ken's colors (teal sleeves, red center). Winx Club In the episode "Battle on Planet Erakylon" (titled "The Wrong-Righters" in the 4kids English dub), a team of five superheroes called "The Patchamen" appear. However, the Gatchaman reference is slightly lost in the English dubs, with them called the "Ninja Hawks" in the International English dub and "The Wrong-Righters" in the 4kids version. They all wear what appear to be blue-and-red versions of Bird Style, only with bug antennae on top of the helmets. The team consists of Ben (a parody of Ken), Bo (Joe), Junko (Jun), Jinpee (Jinpei), and Kiu (Ryu). However, while the first four team members match up to their original Gatchaman counterparts somewhat closely, Kiu is a robot team member rather than resembling Ryu in any way. The team also has a dog named "Zark", referencing the robot from the "Battle of the Planets" adaptation. Futurama The episode "Reincarnation" features an anime-style segment called "Action Delivery Force". While there were no visual shout-outs to Gatchaman, Hoyt Curtin's opening theme to the "Battle of the Planets" adaptation does play at one point during the segment. Robot Chicken The Adult Swim series featured a parody of the "Battle of the Planets" incarnation of Gatchaman, in the segment "Tiny's Big Problem" in the episode "Squaw Bury Shortcake". In the segment, Tiny decides to lose weight but winds up becoming more popular than Mark and Jason, who become jealous and opt to get revenge. The segment ends with Mark discovering that Jason murdered Tiny. Tiny was voiced by Dave Coulier in the parody, Mark and Keyop were voiced by Seth Green, Jason was voiced by Ethan Hawke, and Princess by Kristin Chenoweth. Film Iron Man 007 Main article: Iron Man 007 This South Korean animated film controversially lifted elements from Gatchaman, with character designs patterned after four of the Science Ninja Team members as well as Dr. Nambu, Berg Katse, and X. Video Games *Waka from the video game Ōkami has a Tengu-like design that the developers stated was designed after the Bird Styles of the Science Ninja Team. Comic books Archie * In Sonic Super Special issue #12, an alternate Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends from another universe were dressed as parodies of the Ninja Team called the Chaos Ninja Team Sonicman. DC Comics *DC artist Alex Ross is a fan of the series and did the box artwork for the ADV DVD releases of the series as well as a featurette in the bonus material. He also does artwork of the characters in his photo realistic style at comic conventions and on his website. *In JSA All Stars #1, the heroes try to think of a team name and Commander Steel suggests the name "J-Force". Judomaster then responds in confusion by saying the name of the show's original incarnation and Rex (Hourman) responds by saying he loved that show but that she was thinking of G-Force *The Ame-Comi line of digital comics features an all female hero and villain universe with manga style costume designs. Batgirl's design in this universe is an homage to the Gatchaman Bird Style. Music Parchis The child group Parchis had sung the opening theme for the Spanish version of "Battle of the Planets", titled "Comando G". A music video was also released to promote the song, which featured all five band members dancing in Bird Style costumes while clips of Gatchaman played in the background. Merchandise Gatchapin Gatchapin is a line of merchandise featuring the popular Fuji TV kids' character Gachapin dressed in Bird Style, as if he were a member of the Science Ninja Team. He is usually dressed in Ken's Bird Style, but has also appeared as the other four team members. Gatchapooh Disney Japan released a series of Pooh dolls in 2006, that had the Winnie-the-Pooh character dressed in Bird Style. Snoopy Earlier in 2002, Japanese plushes of Snoopy from the comic strip "Peanuts" were released that had Snoopy also wearing Bird Style.